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La Vie D'artiste La Vie d’artiste , e , e L ’ ÉCART , . Feuilles de métal sur panneau. x cm. ‒ ’ Quelque part dans son livre d’entretiens autobiographiques, Le Consul , Rumney parle du peintre Manzoni : “… il était encore plus jeune que moi (…) Un soir où j’étais chez lui, je lui ai dit : Si tu veux être artiste, ce n’est pas en faisant des tableaux que tu le deviendras. C’est en vivant une vie d’artiste.” Comme toujours et comme tout le monde, quand il parle des autres, c’est de lui qu’il parle. On peut dire que les tableaux étaient importants dans la vie de Rumney, mais que la vie elle-même, avec ses splendeurs et ses aléas, fut plus importante encore. Ça commence comme un conte de fées. Une enfance dans un grand presbytère pauvre, en plein pays des Hauts de Hurlevent , avec la lande autour. On ne fait pas plus romantique (Dolto, est-ce que ça marque ?). Il n’est pas né avec une cuiller d’argent dans la bouche, mais un livre de bibliothèque. Fils d’un pasteur socialiste, il cherche plus extrême, devient communiste, va vivre chez le grand pasteur marxiste du pays, qui l’adoube. (En fait, quarante ans après, dans sa grande maison pleine de tableaux superbes, E. P. Thompson avait encore sur le manteau de la cheminée une toile de ses dix-sept ans. Ça fait plaisir.) Reçu à Oxford, qu’il dédaigne ; passant par une “art-school” qu’il trouve tarte et laisse tomber, sa vie d’artiste ressemble assez au titre d’Orwell Dans la dèche à Paris et à Londres . À cette époque, je l’ai vu pour la première fois. Continuons le conte de fées, Carabosse viendra plus tard. Une vingtaine d’années, déjà connu dans le Londres de la peinture d’avant-garde, où il a dû plaire aux uns et bien embê - ter les autres, que manque-t-il ? Une princesse. ... (Jewish American Princess) c’est Pegeen, blonde, autoritaire et fragile, fille de Peggy Guggenheim. Il l’aime, il l’enlève, il l’épouse. Et commence à mettre autant d’or sur ses tableaux qu’il y en eut © Éditions Allia, Paris, . sur toutes les icônes de Russie. ‒ ’ “J’ai découvert que l’on pouvait tirer de la feuille d’or une mul - Quand on a lu un certain nombre de biographies de morts que titude de tons. Les nuances sont infimes mais passionnantes. l’on a bien connus, on sait qu’elles sont presque toutes fausses, En plus ce sont toutes des couleurs réfléchissantes… Au début, biaisées, naïves ou menteuses. Quand on lit l’autobiographie de évidemment, c’était du toc, du cuivre, etc., mais j’ai progressi - Rumney, quand on sait un peu de quoi il retourne, on la trouve vement découvert la vraie feuille d’or.” Argument irréfragable. par comparaison bien sincère. Pour le reste, il s’explique : “Un On peut en chercher d’autres. Rumney était somptueux, hyper - fait survenu dans ton existence, tu l’adaptes à quelque chose boliquement somptueux. Il semble “toujours avoir alterné entre avec quoi tu puisses vivre. Je ne pense pas être une exception à la pénurie et une abondance presque absurde”, écrit de lui Guy la règle. La mémoire est donc sujette à caution. Les témoi - Atkins. De l’or ! gnages sont sujets à caution.” A-t-il vraiment appris à Yves Klein comment utiliser la fameuse Somme toute, l’aventure finit bien. Toujours Consul comme feuille d’or ? C’est bien possible et technologique, puisque les le consul de Malcolm Lowry, c’est-à-dire buvant comme un idées circulent. A-t-il suggéré à Manzoni de se servir de sa poisson, comme un trou, comme une éponge ; sans accepter “merde d’artiste” (les fameuses boîtes) pour épingler d’un seul aucune compromission avec ce qui ne l’amusait pas, créatif, auto - coup l’art, l’artiste, le commerce de l’art et quelques autres destructeur, il a vécu plus longtemps qu’aucune justice divine petites choses qui ne vont pas bien dans notre monde ? Les sou - (elle n’existe pas) n’aurait dû le lui permettre. Les vieux savent venirs de cuite sont fumeux, on parle, on parle… qu’on ne vieillit pas. Laissons lui le dernier mot : “Le dandy, en anglais ça a un sens, en français ça en a un autre. Je n’ai jamais La même année, en , c’est historique, Ralph participe à la très bien compris ce que ça voulait dire en français, mais je crois création de l’Internationale situationniste. Il y joue un rôle non que ça pouvait s’assimiler au comportement de l’artiste.” négligeable. Sûr, il en sera le premier exclu. Mais les notions qu’il avait déjà, purement situationnistes, de dérive, de détour - nement, de psychogéographie, lui restent bien entendu, l’accompagnent toute sa vie (d’artiste n’oublions pas). La rup - ture avec Guy Debord fut fracassante, l’amitié d’Asger Jorn, autre grand homme de l’affaire, ne lui faillira jamais. Carabosse veillait. Dix ans après leur rencontre, la mort tra - gique de Pegeen bouleverse toutes les données. L’alcool, gai au début, prend de sales revanches. Pour les détails affreux et les règlements de compte sordides, se reporter, si l’on y tient, au livre et à ses souvenirs. Pour suivre son parcours sur le fil du funambule, les déséquilibres, les errances, les rétablissements spectaculaires (oui), il faut s’accrocher. Il n’y a pas si longtemps chaque nouveau romancier, chaque barbouilleur émergent se sentait obligé d’avertir le public qu’il avait été gangster au Brésil, gigolo à Hollywood, soutier dans un baleinier, orpailleur dans une sierra. On restait sceptique. L ’ ÉCART , . Feuilles de métal sur panneau. , x , cm. L ’ ÉCART , . Feuilles de métal sur panneau. x cm. When I met Ralph Rummey in he was twenty. He had returned to London after spending some time on the Continent. In the postwar years he had been one of the first young English artists to try his luck abroad. Currency restrictions at that time limited the traveller to £ . His destination had been Linosa, an island off Sicily. The islanders there made sure he didn’t starve, while occasional forays to the mainland provided him with painting materials. His painterly efforts resulted in an exhibition in Milan, which was at the time a leading centre of advanced modern art. Fontana, the Promodoro brothers, Baj and others met amost daily at the Giamaica Bar, which was clearing house for the latest informa - OTHER VOICES . tion about the goings-on in the local art world. An artist could Hebdomadaire, la revue make a living by knowing some of the many shopkeepers and de littérature et de poésie manufacturers who liked to acquire pictures as a speculation. It Other Voices a été créée en . Ralph Rumney en était was easy to barter pictures against anything from free meals to l’éditeur. Elle a accueilli smart furnishings. Everyone was waiting for the day when a car dans ses colonnes les textes manufacturer would turn collector. de plusieurs écrivains anglais, dont Peter Fisk, Bernard Kops, Hugo Manning, C. H. Sisson Rumney’s exhibition in Milan was a sufficient success to enable et Stefan Themerson. him to return to England. His style was his own form of tachism, a style pretty well known abroad but not in England. In London he was given an exhibition at the New Vision Centre gallery which didn’t go well. However, on the last day Rex Nankivell of the Redfern Gallery came along and bought the entire show and put it on in the West End. So Ralph was able to open a bank account in neighbouring Bond Street. Ralph’s finances seam always to have alternated between penury and almost absurd affluence. One visited him in a squalid room in Neal Street, in a house shared with near down-and-outs. Next : one would find him in Harry’s Bar in Venice or at Max Ernst ’ opening in Paris in the company of the glamorous Pegeen Vail whom he later married. He seemed to me to take poverty with rather more equanimity than riches. In the intervals between painting Ralph adopted a series of other activities. In he had founded and edited a short-lived weekly journal of poetry and the arts called Other voices . From - he worked with the French National Radio in Paris. He had his own interview programme and private office. Later he became an art teacher at the Canterbury College of Art. But to go back to the mid-fifties. In the situationist Inter - national movement, an offshoot of Lettrism, was founded. The founders were a tight little band of international intellectuals and artists. Guy Debord was the organiser, Asger Jorn the chief artist. Ralph Rummey, a founder member, was an ideas man who helped draft the rules. One of these rules was that offen - ding members would be ruthlessly expelled. As luck would have it Ralph himself was one of the first to be expelled. The ostensible cause was his failure to report instantly to Paris head - quarters on arrival from Venice. In Venice he had prepared an illustrated essay on psychogeography : the theory and practice of drifting through an urban environment. When he left the Situationists he came to London and took an active part in the ICA in Dover Street which was then dominated by Lawrence Alloway with his pioneering ideas on American and European art. Ralph helped to enliven the London scene by causing one or two unfamiliar artists from the Continent to be known in London, in particular Yves Klein and Enrico Baj.
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